Stories for May 25th 2018

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) declared Brazil free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) with vaccination on Thursday, opening new export prospects for the world’s largest beef exporter. The OIE already considered most of Brazil to be free of foot-and-mouth with vaccination. The declaration, which the government had been expecting since the start of the year, extends certification to the whole country.

The trade dispute between the United States and China has benefited Brazil so far but could prove harmful long term as higher grain prices will make the country’s exports less competitive, Brazil’s farm minister said. Brazil is the world's leading poultry exporter.

Brazil's government said late Thursday that a deal had been reached with truckers to suspend a four-day-old strike that caused fuel shortages, cut into food deliveries, backed up exports and threatened airline flights.

United Kingdom's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Argentine Government to work together against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment.

A Spanish court has issued hefty prison sentences for politicians and business people involved in a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme that helped fund Spain’s governing party. The National Court’s decision is a major blow for Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular, fined 245,000 Euros because it benefited from the illegal scheme that was in place between 1999 and 2005.

Japan is encouraging more countries from Central and South America to join the reworked Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, in hopes of both capturing the potential of these markets and pressuring the U.S. to return to a framework it left last year.

Moving the Illex fishery into the ITQ system and improved catch verification requirements are among the recommendations made by an independent review of the Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system published by the Falkland Islands government, FIG, this week.